Pulled Chicken Tacos with Tomatillo Sauce

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

For my second block, I spent a few weeks rotating in the emergency room. Now I am an Internal Medicine gal, which means I like sitting and taking my time to get the patient history, delving into the nitty gritty details, and then rounding with the team to come up with an all comprehensive plan for patient care.

Well, that is the opposite of the emergency room.

The emergency room is fast paced, chaotic, and always changing. You goal is to decide 1) sick or not sick, and 2) admit or send home. The rest of the details is left to the inpatient teams or for the outpatient doctors.

It's not unlike clinic, which is fast paced and time sensitive, except that people are sicker and you have all these diagnostic tools on hand with results coming right back. Terrible abdominal pain? Abdominal ultrasound and liver function tests! Seizure with loss of consciousness and head trauma? stat CT! Worsening back pain and you've got cancer? MRI now! Fell off a horse and broke your foot? Off to surgery!

The hours in ER aren't bad except the timing can be weird. Plenty of late night shifts, overnight shifts, and early morning shifts to mess up your sleep schedule.

I had to work Fri, Sat, Sun both weekends including all night shifts on the second weekend. That second weekend, B needed to have movers pick up furniture from a Craigslist person and take it to his apartment. B is of course on call and working that weekend, so he couldn't do it ... unless I came.

So during my weekend of night shifts, instead of catching up on sleep during the day, I get the joy of taking the 2 hour train to NYC, moving all of B's furniture, taking the 2 hour train back to New Haven, and then starting my Saturday overnight ER shift at 11pm with zero sleep.

I do this for B and no one else because I love my husband (also, he dutifully assembled my Ikea furniture in my apartment, so I owed him one) :P

B is very sweet and makes dinner whenever we are together on the times he has the rare day off. He is an expert in cooking with the slow cooker (which I have yet to figure out) and made a massive amount of the pulled chicken for tacos. The rest of the entire week, I just ate his tacos - no need to cook dinner because it was set... and healthy too! Recipe by my husband, B.

Pulled Chicken Tacos with Tomatillo Sauce

Cook time: 2.5 hrs on slow cooker on Hi

Ingredients

CHICKEN:

4-6 chicken thighs and/or breasts (B likes one of each)

taco seasoning mix, to taste

1/2 tablespoon pepper

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 onion, sliced

1/4 cup water

1 jalapeno

TOMATILLO SAUCE:

3-5 tomatillos

1 serrano pepper

1/4 cup cilantro

1 lime

salt, to taste

1/4 water (adjust as needed)

TACO:

corn tortillas

1/4 cup cilantro

1/2 onion, diced

2/3 cup tomatoes, diced

shredded cheese (optional)

lime, to squeeze and garnish

Directions

Turn the slow cooker to HI and add the chicken. Season the chicken inside the slow cooker with the taco seasoning, pepper, and garlic powder. Cut the onions into slices and add it into the slow cooker. Add the water. Do not worry about burning the chicken, As the chicken cooks it will release water and grease allowing it to cook in its juices.

Let it cook for about 2 hrs. While the chicken is cooking you can make the tomatillo sauce. Put the tomatillos and serrano peppers on tray and broil in the oven for ~10 mins. The tomatillo and peppers will shrivel and char a bit. Remove it from the oven and put them in a blender/food processor. Add water, cilantro, and lime and blend it all together. Add salt to taste and set aside to serve.

After 2-2.5 hrs check on the chicken. At this point the chicken should be falling apart or at the very least tender enough for you to pull apart with 2 forks. At this point it is safe to taste the chicken. Let it cook and absorb further in the juices. Turn off the pot when you are satisfied with the taste and texture. Be careful not to over cook the chicken.

Heat the tortillas on stovetop on medium until warm. Serve the chicken, cilantro, tomatoes, onion, and cheese over the tortilla and spoon the tomatillo sauce. Bon appetite!

Welcome!

Hello! I'm a resident in Internal Medicine who loves to eat and doodle. This foodblog is a collection of recipes I've made during my study breaks and stories on my medical / life adventures. Enjoy! :o)